100G/400G switches expected to take off

Demand for 100G/400G switches is expected to take off earlier than expected thanks to increasing hyperscale datacentres.

PCL Technologies, which makes optical transceiver modules has sent sample switches with high transmission speed to datacentre clients for validation to pave the way for shipment in the coming year.

There will be at least 628 hyper-scale datacentres operating in the world by 2021, up from over 300 in 2016. Such centres need constant upgrades which has driven rapid demand growth for 100G switches in 2017-2018.

The 400G switches will command a market share starting in 2019, one to two years earlier than expected, before advancing to the mainstream position, the sources said.

The world's top-five datacentre operators - Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft - have together commanded 70 percent of global capital expenses in the market, with each spending over $25 billion in the first three quarters of 2018.

As the tech giants are expected to further step up upgrades at their datacentres in the 5G era, demand for 100G/400G transceiver modules will become increasingly robust in the next few years, the sources continued.

PCL has invested heavily in the development of 100G/400G transceiver modules and already sent 100G/400G transceiver modules to clients for validation and may start small-volume shipments in 2019 to drive up its revenue growth.

According to Digitimes, 32G (gigabits per second) one-channel optical transceiver modules remain PCL's shipment mainstay, which will pick up in December and the first quarter of 2019.